By JOHN HAPP
Special to the Sun
Everyone knows that change is inevitable. That is especially true for high school sports were every year potentially twenty-five percent of the team graduates and is replaced by a new freshmen class. However for the Cherry Hill East boys cross country team, it seems more to the contrary as the more things change the more they seem to stay the same. And that is exactly how they want it.
The team is ranked No. 5 in the entire state by NJ.com and are the defending state Group IV champions and two-time South Jersey Group IV sectional champions.
The first big meet of the year was the Battle at Ocean County Park in Lakewood. This meet is run a little different in that the athletes compete by class with all freshmen competing together, sophomores competing together, etc. In the merged results of all classes with 430 runners, Cherry Hill East easily won the 33-team competition beating perennial state powerhouse and nationally ranked Christian Brothers. East placed their top five runners in the overall top fifteen with senior Aaron Groff (first), junior Marc Meltzer (second), junior Tyler Parsons (fourth), senior Cole Parsons (10th) and senior Isaiah Jean-Baptiste (15th). Groff and Meltzer were the only two runners to break the 16-minute mark.
The seniors easily won their class with Groff (first), Cole Parsons (fourth), Jean-Baptiste (eighth) and Ryan Federline (12th) with all finishing the 5K in under 16:35. The juniors finished second to the Christian Brothers and placed four runners in the top 25 with Meltzer (first), Tyler Parsons (third), Noah Preihs (20th) and Michael Onu (21st). The sophomores were led by Jeremy Helfand who finished 27th. And finally the freshmen boys showed they too have talent as they finished sixth in the 23-team field with Drew Parent (19th), Malik Salem (30th), Jack Quarry (40th) and Kyle Krell (45th).
For the second year the boys team was invited to compete in the prestigious Manhattan College High School Cross Country Invitational, which is the largest high school cross country meet in the nation, held on the 2.5-mile course in Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx, N.Y. In the 43rd running of the invitational there were 22 different boys races but the premiere event is the Eastern States, which features 28 of the best teams. The event was won by Downington West Pa. with Broughton N.C. finishing second. Cherry Hill East had another strong showing, finishing eighth. They were the second highest New Jersey school behind State champion Christian Brothers Academy and ahead of Don Bosco Prep (10th). East was led by Groff, who finished sixth in a time of 12:24.3. Last year, as a junior, Groff was 11th. Following Groff for East were Meltzer (66th), Jean-Baptiste (74th), Tyler Parsons (76th) and Cole Parsons (96th). Also running for East were juniors Michael Onu and Andrew Warkala.
In the junior varsity race, Cherry Hill East was led by Federline (fourth) and Helfand (22nd). The freshmen race covered 1.25 miles and the East freshman finished fifth in a field of 26 schools and over 200 runners. Leading the freshmen for the Cougars was Quarry, who finished ninth in a time of 6:24.8; Parent, 15th with a time of 6:31.4; and Krell, 21st with a time of 6:35.6.
The biggest meets are still to come with the Olympic Conference Championship on Oct. 23, where the boys are also the two-time overall conference champions, and the South Jersey Group IV Sectionals on Nov. 7. If Cherry Hill East finishes in the top five there, they will advance to the State Group IV Championship on Nov. 14. The Cherry Hill East boys cross country team is hoping that thing continue just as they are and the more things change the more things stay the same and repeat as the champions for all three.
